East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione pointed to a study last week showing that East Hampton Airport generates 91 local jobs and infuses $12.6 million per year into the local economy, adding fuel to the long debate over the airport’s role in the community.
The study, performed by the Federal Aviation Administration and the State Department of Transportation, was released in May and sought to measure the economic impacts of 85 airports in the state. It concluded that East Hampton Airport, located in Wainscott, is directly responsible for creating 65 jobs and indirectly responsible for creating 26 more, resulting in $5.8 million of annual income.
It also found that the airport brings $12.6 million into the community annually, through expenditures at the airport and local hotels, restaurants, stores, and other businesses used by visitors who arrive through the airport.
Mr. Stanzione, the Town Board’s liaison to the airport, used the report to bolster his argument that the municipal airport is an economic engine for the community, and counter opponents who argue that airport activity needs to be curtailed due to aircraft noise.
Mr. Stanzione cited the report as “important evidence of the economic contribution our airport makes to every taxpayer in our community.”
He added: “There are few, if any, other economic enterprises that can compete with that performance.”
Kathy Cunningham, a member of the steering committee of the Quiet Skies Coalition, said she believes the data in the report was extrapolated from national data, and do not necessarily reflect the true number of jobs and amount of economic activity the airport brings to the region. She also said East Hampton Town has failed to perform a cost benefit analysis of the airport, which she said is called for in the Town Code.
“I think that is the real issue here,” Ms. Cunningham, whose group advocates having less traffic at the airport, wrote in an email. “Why rely on a report by an industry agency, obviously promoting the benefits of said industry, that is a statewide analysis, when the Town Code clearly indicates that a cost benefit analysis of our airport should and must be conducted?”
Ms. Cunningham, a resident of East Hampton, said the community envisioned “a smaller airport with a lot less activity” than there is now.
Mr. Stanzione has maintained that installing a summer control tower, which the Town Board approved last month, will help manage aircraft noise. He is also working with the Federal Aviation Administration to route more helicopters along the South Shore of Long Island, where they will pass over fewer homes.
Will James on Oct 4, 2011